Just got my new Strix 7.1. I like it. However, I have a problem. When I start using it to say, watch a movie on my MacBook Pro, after 4-5 minutes, the sound starts to get distorted. After a few minutes later, the sound is completely inaudible.

Has anyone experienced this problem? Anyone using a Strix 7.1 with a Mac here?*

Bill@ASUS

08-29-2017, 03:50 AM

Hello nemesyssoft
Thank you for your inquiry, but I'm not sure what the problem is.
When did you start experiencing this issue?
Does this issue happens every time you play something via your Mac?
How do you recover? re-plug or reboot? Or does it only happen to individual clips or sound files?
Have you tried it on a different computer or Mac yet?
When you said that the sound is completely inaudible, can you describe the sound? Or do you mean that no sound is emitted completely ?
Thank you

nemesyssoft

08-29-2017, 02:34 PM

Hello Bill.

I'll try to answer your questions.

I started experiencing this issue the very first time I used the headset after buying it. Initially when watching a movie but it also happens when listening to music or playing games. It doesn't seem to be related to a particular audio source.

It happens every time. 4 or 5 minutes after playing music or a movie, I start hearing that distortion. After a few more minutes, the sound is completely inaudible. I'm attaching a recording that I made.

The only way to recover is by completely unplugging the headset from my Mac. I tried turning amplification off and on, switching from 7.1 to stereo, nothing works until I unplug the headset. Like I said, it happens on every single audio source I have, different movies, different music songs and games.

The sound is basically distortion. I'm attaching the recording. It's very annoying. I don't know if there is something wrong with the headset, more specifically the DSP audio processing unit.

I have experienced this on both Mac OS X 10.12 "Sierra" and last weekend, I updated my Mac to the latest beta of 10.13 "High Sierra" and it's exactly the same.*

Now, it seems I'm unable to upload *ANY* file. I tried a m4a, invalid file. I zipped it and tried the zip file, invalid file.*

How can I send it to you? It seems your uploader is very restrictive to the type of file. The file is only 47KB in size so I don't think the size is the problem.

Bill@ASUS

08-30-2017, 02:08 AM

Hello nemesyssoft
Thank you for your explanation. Can you upload to a cloud storage like Dropbox or Google Drive and send me the link?
Also, have you tried using it on a Windows? Does the issue still appear? By doing this, we can rule out the fact that the headset itself may be malfunctioning or it has compatibility issues with MAC and I'll report this to our team, thank you

nemesyssoft

08-30-2017, 02:24 AM

Hello nemesyssoft
Thank you for your explanation. Can you upload to a cloud storage like Dropbox or Google Drive and send me the link?
Also, have you tried using it on a Windows? Does the issue still appear? By doing this, we can rule out the fact that the headset itself may be malfunctioning or it has compatibility issues with MAC and I'll report this to our team, thank you

Hello.

I did have bootcamp installed on my MacBook Pro which allows me to reboot in Windows. I have Windows 10 Pro 64bits. The problem doesn't seem to manifest itself. I played songs for some time and played a game for 2-3 hours and the sound never got distorted.

I put the recording onto Google Drive and the link is https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B_KZlCfL94HDc2VpR0JKdDVfZGc. Note that this is the worst part of the problem, when the sound is inaudible. It doesn't start like this but, like I said, it plays normally for 4 or 5 minutes. Then I start hearing that distortion in the background. As the time progresses, the distortion gets louder and the sound from the music or the game gets softer until all I hear is distortion. It feels like it's some static buildup somewhere, but I'm not an electronic engineer, just a software engineer. I recorded the sound with my iPhone tucked inside one of the cup with the Voice Memos app and then exported the memos as a standalone sound file.

I have done a bit of work with USB on the Mac. I know for a fact that Apple enforces to the letter the USB specification. We were having problems with a device in one of my previous job and we finally discovered that the device was sending some kind of ID in all caps (or maybe it was all lowercase) where the USB specification and the Mac OS were expecting lowercase (or all caps, I can't remember which one).

Final note: the Mac seems to recognize that the headset is self-sufficient in that it will not allow me to adjust the volume or the mic input level.*

Bill@ASUS

08-30-2017, 10:35 AM

Hello nemesyssoft
Please reinstall or update your USB driver
Also, what's your model or year of your Macbook Pro?
Did you connect both USB to the system?
Thank you

nemesyssoft

08-30-2017, 01:19 PM

Hello nemesyssoft
Please reinstall or update your USB driver
Also, what's your model or year of your Macbook Pro?
Did you connect both USB to the system?
Thank you

Bill, how can I reinstall the USB driver? There were no driver with the headset. When I go to the support section on the Strix 7.1 webpage,*go to support, then "Driver & Tools", I cannot even select the Mac OS from the popup because it's not listed there.*And there were no CD with the headset, so, I'm not sure which driver you want me to re-install.

I didn't connect both USB to the system. I followed the instructions with the headset but since there were no mention of the second USB connector on the split USB cable, I didn't connect it. Should I connect it?*

Bill@ASUS

08-31-2017, 03:42 AM

Hello nemesyssoft
Please plug in both USB to your system and try again.
If possible please try it on a different Apple device with the same MAC OS version so we can verify if it is the device problem.
Please give us some feedback after your test, thank you

nemesyssoft

09-02-2017, 06:32 PM

Hello.

I did try plugging the 2 USB connectors to my hub (the splitter is not long enough to reach each side of my laptop. My laptop has 2 USB ports, one on each side). There was no difference, the distortion was still present.

I connected the headset to another Mac, a MacBook Pro 17" from early 2011. Same result. After a few minutes of listening, the distortion starts and then covers the music.

I think there might be something in the firmware that communicates to the Mac some invalid information. The USB ports should be standard so I can't imagine that they are not providing the correct current to the devices. I also have many other USB devices, including a Turtle Beach PX21 headset and I never had any problem with any other devices.*

Bill@ASUS

09-04-2017, 03:26 AM

Hello.

I did try plugging the 2 USB connectors to my hub (the splitter is not long enough to reach each side of my laptop. My laptop has 2 USB ports, one on each side). There was no difference, the distortion was still present.

I connected the headset to another Mac, a MacBook Pro 17" from early 2011. Same result. After a few minutes of listening, the distortion starts and then covers the music.

I think there might be something in the firmware that communicates to the Mac some invalid information. The USB ports should be standard so I can't imagine that they are not providing the correct current to the devices. I also have many other USB devices, including a Turtle Beach PX21 headset and I never had any problem with any other devices.*

Hello nemesyssoft
Please try refresh the firmware of the device, you can download the files in our official website
https://www.asus.com/us/Headphones-Headsets/ROG-Centurion/HelpDesk_Download/
Thank you

nemesyssoft

09-04-2017, 04:33 AM

Hello nemesyssoft
Please try refresh the firmware of the device, you can download the files in our official website
https://www.asus.com/us/Headphones-Headsets/ROG-Centurion/HelpDesk_Download/
Thank you

Ok, but I'll have to reboot in Windows. Why don't you guys have a firmware loader for OS X?

nemesyssoft

09-05-2017, 06:14 PM

Hello nemesyssoft
Please try refresh the firmware of the device, you can download the files in our official website
https://www.asus.com/us/Headphones-Headsets/ROG-Centurion/HelpDesk_Download/
Thank you

I did refresh the firmware with the one at the link you indicated, version 1.5 with firmware version 208, IIRC. No change. It's particularly bad with the distortion when watching a movie with a lot of loud sounds. For example, I was watching the movie Avatar when the huge tree on the Pandora moon starts crumbling. The distortion became audible almost immediately. So, it seems that distortion is somewhat in relation with the volume of the sound being played. If no sound playing, I hear no distortion for as long as there is no sound. As soon as there is sound and depending on the volume, the distortion starts to be audible.

What are you planning to do? I specifically purchased this headset because your website mentioned Mac compatibility. Don't you have Macs to test those headsets? Since the headset works under Windows, then this rules out the headset being defective so there is something wrong in the USB info sent to the Mac OS, or something along this line.

I'm anxiously waiting for your reply.*

Bill@ASUS

09-07-2017, 02:35 AM

Hello nemesyssoft
We found the same issue as yours on a Macbook when playing music on iTunes
we'll address this issue to our team and fix it as soon as possible
In the mean time, can you provide the following information? This would boost our process of solving this issue.
 iTunes Version
 Any additional configuration information would help

Thank you for your understanding and support :)

nemesyssoft

09-07-2017, 02:48 AM

Hello nemesyssoft
We found the same issue as yours on a Macbook when playing music on iTunes
we'll address this issue to our team and fix it as soon as possible
In the mean time, can you provide the following information? This would boost our process of solving this issue.
 iTunes Version
 Any additional configuration information would help

Thank you for your understanding and support :)

Awesome! That's the best news I've heard today!

Right now, I'm using iTunes 12.6.2.20. It may or may not be part of the latest Mac OS X "High Sierra" 10.13 (17A360a).

Other than that, I don't have any special configuration.

Here is the link to the latest system diagnostic I ran on my MacBook Pro. Hopefully, it can be useful to you:

https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B_KZlCfL94HDd05iRERaX0dad1k*

Bill@ASUS

09-07-2017, 03:11 AM

Hello nemesyssoft
I can't access the system diagnostic on your Google Drive
It returned with a "Not found, error 404" message. Can you check your link again for me?
Thank you

nemesyssoft

09-07-2017, 03:21 AM

Hello nemesyssoft
I can't access the system diagnostic on your Google Drive
It returned with a "Not found, error 404" message. Can you check your link again for me?
Thank you

Hello nemesyssoft
We have simulated the test environment base on the information provided and here is the result:

01.Mac OS 10.13 is the beta version and the official version is 10.12.6. We found the same issue on beta version. There might be problems in the beta.
02.Based on the description you provided earlier, if Strix 7.1 works fine in Windows OS, it means hardware/firmware is okay.
we have confirmed that the root cause of this problem is not the headset, please consult Apple for solution.
Thank you

nemesyssoft

09-08-2017, 05:55 PM

Hello nemesyssoft
We have simulated the test environment base on the information provided and here is the result:

01.Mac OS 10.13 is the beta version and the official version is 10.12.6. We found the same issue on beta version. There might be problems in the beta.
02.Based on the description you provided earlier, if Strix 7.1 works fine in Windows OS, it means hardware/firmware is okay.
we have confirmed that the root cause of this problem is not the headset, please consult Apple for solution.
Thank you

Ok. That's a bit of a shame that you're dropping the ball like this. I understand your logic but I think that you, as a company, would have much more leverage with Apple in bringing compatibility with a unique product to Apple computers. I will log a bug report with Apple since I'm a registered developer but my bug report is not going to have as much priority as if you had contacted Apple to resolve this issue.

I am disappointed.*

KaurFeyn

10-30-2017, 06:29 PM

Hello nemesyssoft
We have simulated the test environment base on the information provided and here is the result:

01.Mac OS 10.13 is the beta version and the official version is 10.12.6. We found the same issue on beta version. There might be problems in the beta.
02.Based on the description you provided earlier, if Strix 7.1 works fine in Windows OS, it means hardware/firmware is okay.
we have confirmed that the root cause of this problem is not the headset, please consult Apple for solution.
Thank you

I think it's a problem with the software, I've discovered that if the audio output is changed while the noise is experienced, when you go back to the headphone output the noise disappears.*I hope not to lose faith in asus, since I am a follower of the brand.

nemesyssoft

10-30-2017, 07:01 PM

I think it's a problem with the software, I've discovered that if the audio output is changed while the noise is experienced, when you go back to the headphone output the noise disappears.*I hope not to lose faith in asus, since I am a follower of the brand.

I think I did try that in the past but I will try again, thanks.

Yes, I specifically purchased this headset for its real 7.1 feature. That'd be a shame if it didn't work with macOS.

By the way, I did open a bug with Apple and they finally agreed it was a known issue. I hope it will get fixed. It was not in the latest update to High Sierra.*